Random Access

Saturday – 08 September 2007
First off, Happy Hatching Day to Sib-4, !

Last night’s Clitorati was good. Sara, in town for the weekend, put in a special surprise guest appearance. The conversations were good, but the people-watching was a little lax.

This morning, Perry called to see if I wanted to get together for coffee. Not one to pass up early morning caffeination, I said that I’d be along shortly. I rolled out of bed, came in to check my email….. and the power went off.

*blink blink* Oooookay.

I checked the breakers, they were fine. But still, no power. So I called the power company. No reports of problems in the area, but they could send someone to check it out. The agent also suggested that I check with the apartment management or maintenance. I hadn’t thought of that angle; that’s what I did. I finished getting ready and rolled out. The ladies in the front office said that others had reported outages, throughout the morning, but that they weren’t long-lasting. I asked to have someone from maintenance check, just in case I had missed something.

Coffee with Kate, Perry and the kids was good. After I had thinned the blood in my caffeinestream, they invited me to go with them to Gardner Village. I have been “to” Gardner Village before, but that was usually on Sunday bike rides along the Jordan River Parkway; and the shops are closed on Sundays. It’s a quaint little shopping… village with a couple of restaurants. It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

When I got home, the power was back on. I have seen no notifications from Rocky Mountain Power nor from maintenance as to the nature of the problem, though.

And with that: Electricity, Electricity!

• Schoolhouse Rock! version
• Goodness version, from Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks

Enjoy!
Stray Toasters

• I have apparently picked up a cold. Let me add: I am getting seriously tired of the congestion and of having my voice intermittently decide that it doesn’t want to work.
• Wired’s How To Wiki: Write a Perfect Email
• Vikki just jumped up a few spaces on my “Favorite People” list.
• I had two people come up to me at work yesterday to ask me some “getting started” questions about working out.
• The Great Closet Migration is pretty much done. I still need to tweak a few things, here and there, but I am rather satisfied with the way it’s turned out.
• WB Unveils T-Works; free, expansive online animation
• Water, Gatorade or juice…? I should probably go with juice. Orange juice.
• Oran “Juice” Jones. The Rain.
• Juice: Pulp or pulp-free? I prefer pulp-free.
• 
• I feel a pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden coming up…
• Toilet paper and paper towels: Over the top or under the bottom?
• Tentacle Hentai Birthday Cake
• 
  As if we needed yet another team break-up in the Marvel Universe. Who knows…? Maybe we’ll get “The New X-Men” and “The Mighty X-Men” and “Young X-Men” spin-off series outta the deal.
• Sorry, I just found a new low: Marvel Zombie Dark Phoenix. *shakes head*

I believe that a trip to Paragon City is in order.

Namaste.

: So… is something like this a little more in line with what you were thinking as far as a theme goes?

Wednesday: Coda
I drove home from work with grand designs of taking a nap. After a restless night’s sleep, it seemed like a good way to go. I even planned it out so that I would start dinner (baked chicken breasts) and doze while they cooked.

Naturally, when I got home, I remembered a couple of things that I wanted to accomplish this evening and thus… pushed dinner and my nap onto the back-burner.

About an hour later than I had planned, dinner was under way and I prepared myself to visit Morpheus and the other denizens of The Dreaming. I was apparently more wiped-out than I had thought: My planned 30-minute nap stretched into an hour. I did wake up and turn off the chicken, but I stretched out on the couch again afterwards. When I roused myself, it was time to eat: chicken breasts, angel hair pasta and what would have been “stir-fry vegetables,” had I not put them in the oven alongside the chicken… and a glass of Gewürztraminer.

Four Color Coverage
There is an article on Broken Frontier about the 50th issue of (the current run of) Teen Titans. In it, it mentions how a number of writers and artists collaborated on the issue and how long-time fans would appreciate the four pages of work by George Perez, who pencilled the Titans’ adventures for many years in the 80s. In fact, many would say that he was the definitive Titans artist.

That got me thinking: Who are my “definitive” artists for given books? Whose style stands out when you picture a given title?

For me, the list includes:

• John Byrne – Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four
• John Cassady – Astonishing X-Men
• Alan Davis – Excalibur (I’m sorry… no one drew/draws that book like Alan Davis.)
• Keith Giffen – Justice League International
• Ethan Van Sciver – Green Lantern

I’m a little torn about the Legion: I grew up with Keith Giffen’s art, but I really liked Barry Kitson’s Threeboot run.

I’m sure that if I were to go through my collection, I’d come up with dozens more artists, but for now, this is a good start.

For those of you who read comics, who are some of your definitives?

Stray Toasters

• From the Broken Arrow file: Commander dismissed for nuclear mistake
• X-babies! (1,2)
• And, yet another addition to the Covet List: Phoenix
• , do I even want to ask about this: Nepal’s airline sacrifices goat to fix jet !?
• “A Wynn-Wynn situation”
• Psychological “torture bible” published in 1961 resurfaces online
• tried to kill me once again. This time, she tried with this. The even more odd thing: I had seen it, at behest, a couple of years ago.
• Thus, for Ms. Lightning: This.
• Or maybe…. this:

  

  (Yes, I did hear about Friday’s “Batman got beat up by a girl” conversation. Many thanks to for taking up the role of The Voice of Reason in my absence.)

• Dear Angie and John, a columnist’s introduction of a couple of friends to the world of comics.
• Partial Face Transplants – An advanced Photoshop pictures gallery
• I like Elton John’s Rocket Man; I also appreciate a good joke or comic that references it.
• COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Terra was created as a sort of parody of Kitty Pryde.
• Tyranist: It Came From the Quarter Bin: Star Brand #1
• The power just blipped out. Followed by a lovely reboot – my UPS needs a new battery or to be replaced. I thought that I had lost this post, as I hadn’t used “Save and Continue Editing.” Fortunately, Firefox somehow managed to save it. All.
• : Journey into Comics: Legion Season 2

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda / Wednesday – 05 September 2007
The post-work day has been… a bit… interesting.

I went to dinner with and a few of his friends and family. In and of itself, that’s not a bad thing. The problem was the storm that rolled in just as we were getting to the restaurant: Lightning. Thunder. Rain. Wind. Mayhem.

The mayhem came in the form of a blown transformer that took out power on 33rd South from just shy of 7th East almost all the way to State Street. So… dark restaurant. No food. Yay! We regrouped at one of the local Lone Star Restaurants. I haven’t eaten in a Lone Star in a couple of years – something about my aversion to what refers to as “cat in a dryer” (i.e.: “country”) music tends to keep me at bay. But, in the company of friends, what the Hell?! Why not? The food was good, as was the company.

From there, and I headed to Casa de for Game Night. Well, not really Game Night, per se, but we talked about where we’d like to go from this point (since we kind of, sort of killed/dispersed the major antagonist of the campaign). Nox has some ideas and we’re going to venture forth in two weeks.

Four-Color Coverage: Animated Edition
I borrowed the new Doctor Strange DVD (IMDb page) from Perry the other day. The good doctor has never been one of my A-list favorites, but I haven’t turned a title or story down just because he’s in it. I know the basics of his back story and that he’s Marvel’s Sorceror Supreme (read: “He’s the Grand Poobah of Magical Mojo in the Marvel Universe”). He’s been a part of the latest incarnation of The New Avengers, The Defenders… and he’s also part of Marvel’s Illuminati.

With that knowledge in mind, I sat down to watch the new release from Lionsgate and Marvel Entertainment.

The Stephen Strange to whom viewers are introduced is a brilliant neurosurgeon… who just happens to be aloof, arrogant and an all-around ass, quite frankly. He doesn’t have time to be “bothered” with things that aren’t going to bring a healthy fee and/or notoriety. He’s the walking epitome of hubris.Soon, he has a horrible automobile accident and loses the fine motor control of his hands, spelling the end to his career as a surgeon. From there, viewers see his descent into a broken man with no hope.

Enter: Wong, a disciple of a mystic known only as “The Ancient One.” With him, Wong brings the promise of healing for the former doctor. And hope.

And, from that point, the journey of Doctor Strange begins.

I have to admit that I was rather impressed. This movie, though given a PG-13 rating, wasn’t dumbed down. It was well-written, well-voiced and (with a couple of brief exceptions) well-animated. With the exception of young children, I’d say that this feature is something that the entire family could enjoy.

Stray Toasters

• I believe that I want to see Across the Universe.
• The word of the day, heard on Tuesday morning’s commute, is: “Superfunkycalifragisexy.”
• One of the ‘Little Rock Nine’ Looks Back
• When worlds collide, by way of Real Life Comics:

  

• Meat and greet – all the president’s lunch, by way of lj user=”dmmaus”
• “Mischief managed” and “Danger averted.”
• I believe in what I see
  I believe in what I hear
  I believe that what I’m feeling
  Changes how the world appears
• “Nucular toonami!”
• 
• Not one to avoid controversy, Whoopi Goldberg defends Vick’s dog-fighting role
• I noticed that the calendar in the… hmm, I can’t call it the HALO Command Center, as my Xbox is in the living room… “office” – a Marvel 2007 calendar, chock full o’ superhero goodness and given to me by Acolyte Derek – has September 11, 2007 noted as “Patriot Day.” I’m not going to go into my usual “Why the day shouldn’t be called that” rant here… but I thought about it.
• One of my KVMs is acting up; I can’t find all of the cords for the other one. *sigh*

It’s early and I have to get up later.

Namaste.

Monday: Coda / Tuesday – 04 September 2007
And so, the day (and the holiday AND the long weekend) comes to a close.

I found a few things to do that, while not “labor,” per se, were nevertheless good and fun:

• I had a craving for sushi for lunch, so I met at Tsunami. Today’s fare included: a Steak and Chicken Teriyaki lunch combination, with Ika nigiri and a Bonsai roll. All of it was quite tasty.
• From there, I visited Kate, Perry and the kids. (Who needs a workout when you have adopted nieces and nephews?!)
• Perry and I snuck out to check out a few stores. Okay, we didn’t “sneak,” but saying “…and we heading to a few stores” doesn’t have the same ring to it.
• I went to Murray Parkway Golf Course, to swat a bucket o’ balls on the driving range. They had closed a little before I got there…
• …so, I headed to Golf in the Round. They were still open! I got a large bucket and was on my way. I mixed my use of the irons, rather than just the 2, 4, 5 and 7. I need some work with the 9-iron, but on the whole, I think things went well. The 2- and 5-irons did well. And, I had a few really decent drives with the 5-wood and my driver. I tried to incorporate the things that told me (which helped quite a bit) and I tried to be more aware of how I was positioning myself relative to the tee and how I was swinging the clubs. Still not perfect, but getting better.

Now, I’m about to put in a little time on (what will hopefully be) the actual lyric-to-drawing piece for Ed’s Song, as opposed to the dry runs and fly-bys that I’ve been practicing on.

Stray Toasters

• I may make a decaf and Irish cream nightcap, to cap off the long weekend with a (minor) flourish.
• leucism vs. albinism
• I’ve added everydave.com to the blogroll on Random Access; I don’t know why I hadn’t done it before.
• laughter is infectious
  excitement goes to my head
  winds are stirred by planets in rotation
  sparks ignite and spread new information
• Nepal’s gadget-loving, 10-year-old Living Goddess: Interview
• I need to find a copy of The Prophet of Akhran, the third book in The Rose of the Prophet series. A trip to Mecca might be in order.
• Huh. Mentioning a possible trip to Mecca made me consider the following:
  • I refer to Utah as “The Land Behind the Zion Curtain.”
  • I refer to The Bookshelf as “Mecca”
  • IKEA (*genuflect*) is affectionately referred to as “The Garden of Sweden.” (Maybe I’ll start writing that as “SwEden.”)

  The only thing missing is Totem (click “Totem” for lyrics) playing in the background.

• From NPR: Dad Finds Answers to Kids’ Darndest Questions
• For some reason, The Who’s The Seeker just popped into my head. It was immediately followed by a random Harry Potter thought (as Harry was a Seeker on his Quidditch team). Then the two, like some horrible Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup accident, combined to form the following question: I wonder if any aspect of the song played a part in the outline that became the story of Harry Potter?

And, that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Monday – 03 September 2007
Happy/Good/Merry/Whatever Labor Day to those of you in the U.S.

Labor Day.
Summer’s last hoorah.
The last day to wear white, in some fashion circles.
Or the day spend it at the mall/shopping center, hunting down the latest bargains.
The day we sit at home, on our collective recta, not working… unless you happen to work in the service industry.

Labor Day Related Songs
This is by no means an exhaustive or comprehensive list; these are just the first few songs that popped into my head:

• Working Man – Rush
• Working for the Weekend – Loverboy
• A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ but Work – Big Daddy Kane
• I Get the Job Done – Big Daddy Kane
• I Go to Work – Kool Moe Dee
• She Works Hard for the Money – Donna Summer
• Money for Nothing – Dire Straits
• Opportunities – Pet Shop Boys

It reminds me of Memorial Day, in the way that many people oxymoronically don’t – or possibly choose not to – remember the reason for the day… other than, once again, great sales.

Playing ‘Clix last night was fun. Chris handily handed me my plastic crack-playing ass. But, it was fun. I got to try out some new figures and get a better feel for some of the game’s dynamics.

Stray Toasters

• This morning, around 3:30 AM, the word “pericardium” popped into my head for no apparent reason.
• Papers, Please: Arrested at Circuit City for refusing to show ID, receipt
• 
• Spirit and Opportunity Are Back Online
• After a week away, tomorrow’s workout should be… fun (read: “painful”).
• When I First Kissed You, by Extreme, just came up on iTunes.  I haven’t heard this in many months of Sundays.  I guess that this is yet another reminder/reason that I’m going to finally have to integrate my home and work iTunes libraries.

Time to find some trouble to get into.  And lunch, too!

Namaste.

Sunday – 02 September 2007
I don’t know what it means, but I had a dream with the following people in it:

• Rick James
• Eddie Murphy
• Bob Barker – in a blue-and-white seersucker suit… telling jokes (Whiskey Tango…?!)
• Will Smith

There were a other people in the dream, but I can’t remember whom nor can I remember the details of the dream beyond the fact that it was some kind of party. Bizarre.

, Chris and Perry are coming over in a bit to play dolls HeroClix. I’m finally getting a chance to test out my new Legionnaires. Or maybe I’ll just use Phoenix and call it a day. I do, however, need to figure out who I want to use, given the number of points we’re playing with.

Stray Toasters

• I neglected to get Rana’s opinion on something for Dad’s birthday. I didnt’ realize it until close to midnight. *sigh*
• “Did you just say ‘nut rolling?’ “
• Last night, Shelley, Kris, Jon (all former VI workers) and Gary (Shelley’s husband) popped in to VI while we were having breakfast. It took me a few moments to recognize who was who until I saw Jon – he reminds us of Tom Welling; in fact we nicknamed him “Clark,” due to the resemblance.
• By way of Tyranist: Why superheroes always win
• I have Nomad on Shuffle. Ezekiel 25:17 just played. It’s Sunday and it is derived from a couple of actual scriptures, but for some reason that verse, as done in Pulp Fiction, just seems a little… “not right”… especially with the punctuating gunfire at the end. But it did put a smile on my face. Yeah, yeah… I know: Hell. Handbasket. Gasoline drawers.
• I want to go to the Garden of Sweden. I don’t really need anything. But, I still want to go.
• Top 100 Undiscovered Sites

Errand-running, a frozen mocha and some cleaning are in my not-too-distant future. I should probably get a move on… or something that approximates it.

Namaste.

Thursday – 30 August 2007
This morning, getting up wasn’t a problem. Deciding what to do was. For about five minutes.

I was on the fence about taking a partial day or the whole day, as I am heading in the general direction of Las Vegas in a few hours.

I decided that I’m taking the day off.

City of Heroes/Villains
As I’ve been playing this game for a little over two years now, it’s pretty safe to say that I enjoy the game. I think that would refer to it as one of my “warm, happy places.”

What I don’t enjoy is racking up over 60,000 points of XP debt in one mission, because the team’s Tanker (built like a brick house – OW!) and one of the Blasters (long-range damage-dealer) were a bit… “overzealous”… in their play. The Blaster would run into rooms with multiple villains, get them riled up and then lead them back to the group. And the Tanker, according to another team member, “…leaks aggro like a sieve.” In other words, his job was to basically stand around and look pretty… and to take abuse from the bad guys while we mopped them up. Unfortunately, this became a case of “practical theory vs. real-world application.” In fact, he even had an ability to hold the villains’ attention, just for that purpose. Did he use it? Not that any of us saw. *sigh*

I was asked to join another team later. That one went much better. Not only did I manage to get rid of my accrued debt, but I am probably…. 7/10 to 8/10 of the way to Security Level 35.

Stray Toasters

• I’m not sure if I’m going to see BBVD tomorrow night; it depends on whether or not Sib-1 and want to go.
• With a write-up like this, I may have to see if I can get a copy of 5.
  

  This comic will give you pet tigers, chained artists, lizard eggs, space ships, mutated dogs and kung fu blaxploitation sci fi craziness. It will give you joy. It will make you want to create your own comics. And that is the highest praise I can give it. Highly recommended, if you can find it.

• : Three words – “Sunday. Night. Football.” Oh, add a fourth: “Beer!”
  Think about it.
• I had a couple of blasts from the past last night.
• Tires are not inexpensive.
• FLCL (because the pillows are playing on the iPod).

Up out.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 29 August 2007
Waking up wasn’t quite so bad this morning. That’s not to say that I leapt out of bed as soon as the alarm sounded, but it wasn’t an ordeal.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Right out of the gate, Nomad started playing The Jackson 5’s ABC on the morning commute. Not a bad way to kick off the drive, to be honest.

ABC
Easy as…
123
As simple as…
Do re mi
ABC, 123, baby, you and me girl

I occasionally think of how one would perform a song in sign language. I had one of those moments this morning:

ABC
(simple enough, you would finger-spell this)
Easy as…
(again, I think that this should be fairly straight-forward)
123
(finger-spell, so to speak)
As simple as…
(again, this should be simple)
Do re mi
(Ummm…)

That’s where I hit a blocker. Do re mi. *blink blink* “Do re mi fa so la ti do” is a solfege (NOT to be confused with Soul Edge), used to help in sight-singing, where each syllable correlates to a specific tone/pitch… but I don’t know that it really “translates” into sign language.

If anyone knows anything about this, help me out.

Stray Toasters

• Coffee, ice cream (as creamer) and a dash or three of chocolate syrup.
• Thanks to for sending a link to this.
• 
• Human-like robotic arm, with familiar muscles and bones: video
• AT&T Stops “Time,” Ends an Era
• 

Namaste.

Tuesday – 28 August 2007
Waking up wasn’t quite as hellish as I had expected, especially considering the time that I finally wound down enough to attempt sleeping. It was “You-should-have-been-in-bed-long-ago o’clock” when I hit the rack.

It was raining on the way to Happy Valley this morning. It started at Point of the Mountain and wrapped up by the time I passed the first Lehi exit. That’s about… six-and-a-half miles. In that span, it went from drizzle to nearly-torrential downpour to “What rain?” Traffic slowed to a crawl. To be honest, I was surprised to see that – it’s not often that the road monkeys figure out: “Hmm… these may be less than ideal driving conditions; maybe I should slow down.” I wanted to give them all cookies. Then I had a couple of lyrics run through my head:

The first was Sting’s Desert Rose:

I dream of rain
I dream of gardens in the desert sand

The other was Everything but the Girl’s Missing:

And I miss you
(Like the deserts miss the rain)

The former was amusing because it came to mind as I was passing Thanksgiving Point… which has a rather large and elaborate garden… in the middle of the desert. The latter always strikes me as funny because I never really think of deserts “missing” rain.

Today’s workout was good. I discovered something: 300 pounds is heavy. VERY heavy. Eric and I decided to give it a shot… just to see if we could; Eric did it once back in February. We couldn’t today. But, we did get 275 again. I was good with that. I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to press 300, but I wanted to try. I was able to lower it slowly and get it (just barely) off my chest; I couldn’t make the transition from there, though. Oh, well. That just gives me something to work up to.

City of Heroes/Villains
The Hand of Nefer-Tem.
Security Level 34.
Boo-yah.

Stray Toasters

• I completely forgot about last night’s eclipse.
• Doesn’t this look like an out-take from Dragon’s Lair? It’s not. It’s a picture of DC Comics’ Shining Knight.
• Psychology of risk-taking
• 
• Chaos Computer Club Congress goes steampunk
• Although not necessarily “dystopian,” would the upcoming Bionic Woman series be considered cyberpunk?
• It’s gonna be the future soon
  I won’t always be this way
  When the things that make me weak and strange
  Get engineered away
• At the risk of losing a lot of cool points: I like the music of Jim Croce and Gordon Lightfoot.  Both men do/did some very nice guitar work… even though Mr. Lightfoot wrote what I consider one of the most depressing songs ever: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
• 
• I want to build… something… out of LEGO. I might even break out the Rokenbok, too.
• Tyranist, I need some feedback on this: Gore Is Less – Videogames Bake Better Horror Than Hollywood
• A little while ago, our Director of Operations and the Operations Manager asked me if I’m getting bigger (bulking up)… separately, but within five to ten minutes of each other.  I’m not working out for others’ recognition, but it’s nice that it’s noticeable.  It was amusing to see their expressions when they asked if I was taking any supplements or doing anything else to aid in the development and I told them “No.”

Namaste.

I decided to hang the last two Rush tourbooks while waiting for dinner to cook.

I had finished getting them all on the wall when I noticed that I needed to move the nail that Snakes & Arrows was on – the Vapor Trails book/frame had previously hung there and there was about a 5/8″ difference in how the two frames hung. I took S&A off the wall, measured and marked the distance and started pulling the nail out of the wall.

That’s when Far Cry started playing.

That made me chuckle.

As I finished rehanging Snakes & Arrows, I noticed that I needed to make a couple of minor adjustments to Roll the Bones.

That’s when Ikea (where I got the frames) started playing.

That made me laugh.

But, I got them all on the wall.

(click image for larger image)

Monday – 27 August 2007
Another work week begins.

Yesterday, I saw The Bourne Witch Project
The Blair Witch Ultimatum
I mean The Bourne Ultimatum. with . It was a good movie, but damn-and-a-half…. someone needs to buy Paul Greengrass a Steadi-Cam mount. Hell, buy him two, just in case one of them breaks.

Post-movie, we stopped in to say hi Kate, Perry and the kids. One thing about playing with the kids: I don’t need to worry about needing a workout – they keep me pretty busy. (Not a bad thing at all.) From there, it was on to ‘ place for a cookout. Mmm, pork loin.

I also framed the tourbooks for R30 and Snakes and Arrows yesterday afternoon. In “an unfortunate mishap,” I managed to break the glass in the frame for Roll the Bones. Yep, two great glass events in three weeks. I’m batting 1.000. Fortunately, the glass didn’t shatter; it just fractured into large, easy-to-clean-up pieces. I still need to hang the books. Maybe I’ll do that tonight.

Four-Color Coverage / Reeling by on Celluloid
I’m not sure exactly where this fits best, as it covers both categories. Rather than try to sort it out, I’ll just make it a combined entry.

Code Monkey BB and I went for a constitutional Friday afternoon and a snake was slithered across the walkway.

I’m not a fan of snakes.

After it had gone on its merry way and we continued walking, an odd thought crossed my mind: Would Indiana Jones have made a good Green Lantern?

I’m not saying that the erstwhile Dr. Jones was a slouch in the bravery department, but let’s face it: Most of the time, he was probably either dusting off artifacts on a dig of fending off the advances of a co-ed during a lecture. Neither of those is the most courage-consuming of tasks. (Well, I guess that depends on the co-ed, really.) But, I digress…

Fairly early in Raiders of the Lost Ark, we discover that Indy is afraid of snakes. We see it again, when he drops into the Well of Souls… next to a cobra and its friends. In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, we learn the origins of his phobia.

Green Lanterns derive their power from their willpower, as channeled through their rings. The reason that rookie Lanterns are still affected by “the yellow impurity” is their inability to overcome fear. Once their fear has been overcome, their constructs are only limited by their willpower and imagination.

I posed the Indy/Lantern question to lj user=”everydave” Friday night. He pondered it for a moment and noted that in the scene where Indy and Jock are taking-off after Jones’ daring escape from the Aztec (or was it Mayan?) temple:

Indiana: There’s a big snake in the plane, Jock.
Jock: Oh, that’s just my pet snake Reggie.
Indiana: I hate snakes, Jock. I hate ’em.
Jock: C’mon, show a little backbone, will ya?

‘s point was: He apparently was able to overcome his fear, in that he dealt with the fact that the snake was in the cockpit rather than leap out of the plane.

Then there’s the scene in the Well of Souls:

[Upon opening the Well of the Souls and peering down into it]
Sallah: Indy, why does the floor move?
Indiana: Give me your torch.
[Sallah does, and Indy drops it in]
Indiana: Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?
Sallah: Asps. Very dangerous. You go first.

…and he did.

So… I guess that Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. would have made a potentially good Green Lantern.

City of Heroes/Villains: The Scales of Justice
The Hand of Nefer-Tem made the rounds in Paragon City last night. I teamed with some upper 40s and 50s on a couple of Praetorian missions. By the end of the night, I was about a bubble-and-a-half away from Security Level 34.

Stray Toasters

• NX Server. I like.
• Comics Should Be Good’s Top 100 Marvel and DC Characters
• Jeff: I’m going to be sitting there, trying to convince them that I’m a safe choice for Senior Accountant… and suddenly, I’m a naked man saying, “Vulva!”
  Steve: You’re just going to sit on a chair and talk. It’s not difficult.
  Jeff: Not diffi… not difficult?! I’ve got accidental words to worry about… thanks to Patrick here, I’ve got nudity projection. And there’s the giggle loop, of course.
• Original Haunted Mansion documentation
• “plot synopsis”
• By way of Dwim: Nixon-Peabody’s ego masturbation (click on the “MP3” link) *shakes head*
• Sad news for denizens of The Dreaming…
  

  I understand that, to celebrate Sandman’s 20th Anniversary, Neil Gaiman was to write a “Sandman” mini-series. However, recently the project was pulled.

  When asked, Neil told me, “We couldn’t come to an agreement that would allow me to do a new six issue Sandman story for DC, and many people at DC and my agent tried hard to make it happen. Pity.”

  I understand that certain people at DC are quite upset – though not with Neil or his agent. Given the performance of the “Endless” hardcover volume, this could have been expected to be a No.1 best seller in the direct market for all six months and the No.1 in the bookstore bestseller lists.

• 
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak LEGO playset
• Patrick: What’s the matter?
  Jeff: I can’t turn off the naked people.
• 
• Michael Vick (finally) plead “guilty” to federal charges. Great. Can we move on to other news now? PLEASE?!
• Steampunk in the Boston Globe

Namaste.

Sunday – 26 August 2007
Yesterday was good. I mean… come on… the day started with coffee and IKEA and ended in Park City watching India.Arie. How could that not be a good day?! I’ve listened to some of her music before, but seeing her live was very cool. She had great stage presence and just seemed to be having a good time. The crowd really seemed to enjoy her performance, as well.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
At last night’s concert, India.Arie played/sang bits of many different songs – songs made popular by other artists, including a really good cover of Rufus and Chaka Khan’s Tell Me Something Good. But, she put her own twists on them and changed the way they came off… and, in that way, made them her own.

That made me consider something that I wrote a couple of years ago:

I’m having a bit of a John Stewart moment, not to be confused with a Jon Stewart moment.

When I say that I’m having a John Stewart moment, I don’t mean that I’m dressing up in a black and green outfit (I did that last Hallowe’en) and saving the world (I do that in City of Heroes). What I do mean is that I think that I am in the middle of rediscovering/redefining what makes me tick.

I used to use a lot of quotes when I was young. To make me sound mature. To make me sound serious. To make me feel like I wasn’t the second-class entity I’d always thought I was.

But the courage to use your own voice, that’s the test of maturity. That’s the proof of seriousness. Maybe that’s my mission here.

To find my own voice.

To find a voice for all these creatures and let them speak in harmony.

Yeah. Maybe. But in the meantime… there’s business.

I don’t think that I have changed that much since I started writing in this. Maybe I have. Maybe I’m “too close” to it to see. I do know that this journal has changed – it has a flavor that is distinctly mine, but does it speak with the full timbre of my voice? Or the voices in my head – past, present and future? I don’t know. Quite possibly so. But, there are still questions to be asked. And voices that need to be heard.

I should find that voice. My voice. And then, I can find the voice for this journal. Will it change the way that I write in here? Possibly. It’s hard to say until I undertake the process. Maybe it will metamorphose into something new. Perhaps it will revert to something like it was before. We’ll see how it goes.

One of the things that I had been worried about was using others’ quotes to express my thoughts, feelings and/or opinions. Listening to the way the India.Arie used other artists’ songs and wove them into and through her own pieces made me realize something: The things that I listen to and read have become a part of my voice.

They are things that have found an anchor and resonated within me. They’ve made a connection. Brought life to some spark. And, eventually, provide a pathway that I can use to relate/convey what I’m thinking or feeling. Even better, they aren’t the only weapons in my arsenal. They are handy, sometimes even convenient, but I have a versatile array of tools at my disposal. No matter which one I choose, it is mine to use.

That’s something that I think I have known – at some level – for a while. But, sometimes, it takes a different lens to help bring things into focus.

And I like the view.

Stray Toasters

• I have Honeycomb cereal. Before this last grocery run, I don’t think that I could tell you when the last time I had bought Honeycomb was.
• As promised: Pat, here is your mention in my blog.
• The War(s) They Fought
• By way of comes “proof” that I’m Chinese. (Which isn’t really true… I’m Negro-Saxon.)
• From NPR: My Cancer
• Tori Amos is apparently coming to SLC in November.
• 
• If they were to make a Sandman movie, I think that Tori Amos would make an interesting Delirium. Or maybe Evanna Lynch, the young lady who played Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
• 
• I need to hang my banner. Of course, that means cutting it and prepping it for hanging. And that requires effort.
• In this picture, we see U.S.Agent (at one point chosen to be Captain America’s successor) getting ready to tear into… someone. (I don’t read Omega Flight, so I’m not sure who that is.) But, that’s not what struck me. ‘Agent’s costume is based on Cap’s. I thought that I had read somewhere… somewhen… that Cap’s tunic was chainmail. That picture looks more like scale mail. And, according to the Wikipedia entry I just found, apparently it is supposed to be scale mail. Now I want to see if I can track down the source that made me think it was chain.
• I am craving a frozen mocha. But that requires a bit of effort, too.
• 
• Great. Just found an item that said Cap’s tunic is chainmail.
• Speaking of which: I remember playing Chainmail many moons past at The Armory.
• The Armory used to make the best miniatures paints, too…
• I need to get some paints: I am going to do custom ‘Clix for Hand of Nefer-Tem and Corvus Nox. Because I’m a geek like that. To date, the miniature paint job of which I am most proud was the tattoo I did on Alias‘ arm. I wish I still had the miniature, but I think that it fell prey to one of Mom’s cleaning sprees many years ago.

Time to do… something.

Namaste.

Saturday – 25 August 2007
Any day that starts with coffee and a trip to IKEA can’t be all bad. This was no exception. The unusual thing is that this trip was not for me and I walked out with nothing new. Well, except for a new bible. I mean “catalog.” I then spent the better part of the afternoon helping Perry to assemble his newly-purchased bed frame… and then hanging out with him and the family.

Home now.

Soon, I’m off to Park City for the Park City Jazz Festival. (Thanks, !)

Stray Toasters

• For :

  

• While standing in the checkout line at IKEA, a couple walked up behind me and the guy said something to the effect of: “Oh my God…” when he looked at how crowded the lines were. I turned around and asked: “First time…?” He said,”No, I was here last weekend, but it wasn’t as bad as this.” I nodded. He asked me, “How long have you been doing this.” I smiled and said: “About 15 years.” He wrinkled his brow and said, “Not here…?”

  INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Of course, not here, idiotstick. The IKEA here has been open for what… three months? *sigh* Common sense, unfortunately, isn’t.My response: “No, not here. There was one back home.”

  INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Idiotstick.

• So… let’s take a quick look at some Civil Bore items a bit of the aftermath:
  • Tony Stark gets the wild hair to turn into Ash from Pokèmon and get people to sign up to play for his team… or get thrown in jail. (Gotta catch ’em all!)
  • As part of his master plan, he takes a bit of DNA from the late God of Thunder, Thor.
  • …and he makes a clone of him, not-so-affectionately referred to as “Clor.”
  • Clor, is.. um.. “a little” unstable.
  • Clor kills the former avenger, Goliath.
  • Civil Bore wraps up.
  • Thor… comes back from the dead. (Maybe he’s part-Vulcan or part-Kryptonian… who knows?!)

  Now, I mentioned Ash… I mean Tony Stark… at the beginning of this, right? Okay, good. So, when you first meet up with (read: “confront”) your former comrade-in-arms, especially an Asgardian god… AND the same Asgardian god that you, in your infinite wisdom, decided to clone, how can you expect that meeting to go any way other than this: (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) ?!? Oh, that’s right… you’re Tony Stark. Iron Man. A futurist. You don’t have to think about the rules.

  Or you’re just plain stupid.

• Transformers in IMAX? Hmm…
• Guy Gardner may not be my favorite Lantern, but WizKids got his ‘Clix figure and stats right.
• I should eat something. Soon.

Up out.

Namaste.

Friday – 24 August 2007
Last night’s “What should I have for dinner” conundrum was solved thanks to the timely intervention of lj user=”khayla”. She suggested sushi (Ika! Ika! Ika!). I agreed and we were off to the races, as the saying goes. We went to Tepanyaki; our chef, Don, was good. Not just that he was a good cook, but he also had personality. (“Personality goes a long way….”)

City of Heroes/Villains: View from the Aerie
After dinner, I took Corvus Nox back to Paragon City to get the last few thousand points he needed to hit Security Level 17. I joined a pretty good team and got the points needed… and moved a decent way towards getting to Level 18.

As I was preparing to log out, I stopped outside the Talos Island train station to try and resurrect a player who had been ambushed. The attempt was successful… to a degree. There were two problems, minor things really…

• The person would have rezzed fine… had they been paying attention. But, they weren’t so they just continued to lie there.
• The type of power that I was using requires me to drain life from nearby enemy characters – to redirect their energy into the body of the fallen hero. That part worked, but as soon as I did that, they started attacking me. And they were WELL above my level. So, I wound up dying. With the quickness. *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• I introduced a couple coworkers to Avenue Q, by way of the The Internet is for Porn machinima and the Avenue Q Wikipedia entry.
• It’s a good thing that it’s Friday: I just scrolled up to edit something in the top paragraph, saw the “Ika! Ika! Ika!” comment… and immediately started trying to reparse it to fit Iko Iko. Yeah… I need a weekend.
• Coworker Susan sent me a link to Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. (As if I needed yet another distraction…) I countered with Instructables.
• forwarded this to me. It made me laugh.

  

• Wife of Police Chief Arrested on Drug Charges.
  “Wife of Police Chief.”
  “Drug Charges.”
  *facepalm*
• Tag: The Ring meets zombies
• Liz sent me this; I should print it and put a copy of it on my cube wall…

  

• Grindhouse breakfast cereal photoshopping contest
• Here’s another way I can tell that I need it to be Friday:
  • I was looking at the cover art to Tag (from the ‘Toaster posted above)
  • It reminded me of the artwork for Chess
  • Chess reminded me of Deep Blue
  • Deep Blue kicked off a tangent about “…the Devil and the deep blue sea”
  • …which morphed in my head to “Devil and the Deep Blue C,” as in the programming language (naturally, I had to look up what language Deep Blue was programmed in – it was C)
  • …which somehow triggered a thought about Crystal Blue Persuasion.

  At that point, I forced myself to stop thinking about tangents. Yeah, I need a weekend.

• By way of boingboing.net: someecards – When you care enough to hit send.

Namaste.